Revocation creates extreme music for extreme times. On New Gods, New Masters, their fifth record for Metal Blade, the quartet–spearheaded by founder/vocalist/guitarist Dave Davidson–delivers nine potent and portentous songs of brutal lyrical and musical significance.  

Produced by Davidson mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (The Haunted, Spiritbox), tracks including “Cronenberged” (feat. Jonny Davy of Job for a Cowboy), “Sarcophagi of the Soul,” “Confines of Infinity” (feat. Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation) and “Dystopian Vermin” thematically explore AI and its impact on humanity. 

“I’ve been very fascinated with the development of Artificial Intelligence, and I’m deeply concerned where this could lead humanity,” says Davidson, “whether it’s the slow march towards a technological dystopia or the all-out annihilation of our species.” 

To wit, “Cronenberged” is about a science experiment gone wrong. Davidson is a massive Sci-Fi horror fan who loves the body horror genre that David Cronenberg helped create; the song is an homage to that. And, Davidson adds, “Shout out to Rick and Morty for inspiring the song title.”

The Boston-bred Davidson credits newest members Harry Lannon (rhythm guitar and backing vocals since 2023) and bassist Alex Weber with a renewed energy and intensity onstage. “It’s been a pleasure ripping with those guys alongside Ash (Pearson), who always crushes it behind the kit.” In terms of his playing, writing, and singing, “I’m always refining my craft and trying to get better,” he says.  

Davidson was excited to welcome a guitar guest—as well as impressive vocal features—on New Gods, New Masters. Revocation had late Black Dahlia Murder singer Trevor Strnad and Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse guesting on Netherheaven, and Davidson recruited more talented peers for New Gods. “I’m honored to have such amazing guests on New Gods. On vocals we have Jonny Davy and Luc Lemay, two vocalists that I really admire who have their own unique sound,” says Davidson. “I remember texting with Jonny about guesting on “Cronenberged” asking him if we wanted to be the personification of a mutated abomination that escapes a testing facility. He was stoked to go as unhinged as possible and his vocals on that track sound truly inhuman.”  

A longtime fan of Gorguts’ Lemay, describing the Canadian singer’s vocals as “brutal but also tortured sounding at times. There’s a lot of emotion in his voice and that came through perfectly on the album closer ‘Buried Epoch.’” Slightly more unexpected is the contribution of jazz player Gilad Hekselman, who played with Pat Metheny at The Kennedy Center and won Rising Star in Downbeat Magazine, among numerous other accolades. He plays on “The All Seeing.” “Gilad is a buddy of mine and happens to be one of the best jazz guitarists in the world. His playing is awe-inspiring, and I’m truly honored to have him as the guest soloist on the outro of ‘The All Seeing.’” 

New Gods, New Masters marks the band’s 20th anniversary. Revocation debuted with 2008’s Empire of the Obscene and subsequently released seven critically acclaimed albums and toured over 25 countries, bringing their technically charged, high-energy extreme metal to North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. New Gods follows up 2022’s Netherheaven, where Davidson’s lyrics took hard looks at Catholicism, hypocrisy, politics, the occult and demonic symbolism. Critics raved about Netherheaven, calling it “ Revocation’s best record in a decade” and praising the “darkest, heaviest songs of their career.” 

That album set a high bar, but an even sharper musical and lyrical focus was achieved on New Gods, New Masters, which is deftly captured in the album artwork by Paolo Girardi. “He did an incredible job of bringing the lyrical themes of a bleak techno-nightmare to life,” Davidson says. “The ‘New God’ being birthed from the abyss of teeth and wires was even better than what I envisioned. I absolutely love the color palette he used. He even included some easter eggs from our first demo and first full-length album cover, which adds even more depth and meaning to the artwork for me.” 

Titling the album New Gods, New Masters reflects his belief about humans’ need to worship various gods. “It seems as if that desire is encoded in our DNA. As science and our understanding of nature and the universe as a whole, increases, the religions of the old gods start to become obsolete,” believes Davidson. “However, I believe we’ve replaced our old gods with new ones, worshipping technology and creating a cult-like idolatry of innovators.”

Revocation, unafraid to upend musical and lyrical tropes with forward-thinking and sounding approach, with songs that excoriate society’s addiction to phones (‘Sarcophagi of the Soul”) and animal experiments that illuminate/replicate societal issues (“Dystopian Vermin”), Davidson’s science-backed observations all the more terrifying for their reality. 

If technological advances create worse problems alongside “solutions,” Revocation forge ahead, four guys plugged in, fighting existential threats with metal, “waiting to see what the next trial of the human experiment brings.”

Music grounds and uplifts the band members—and fans. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to evolve as a musician and songwriter with every release. I never want to stagnate, and I think we’ve achieved real growth with every album,” says Davidson. “I’m also extremely proud that I’ve been able to keep this band going after all these years; it’s crazy to think of how far we’ve since the beginning.”   

Lineup:

 Dave Davidson: Vocals, Guitar
Ash Pearson: Drums
Harry Lannon: Rhythm Guitar
Alex Weber: Bass

An uncompromising sibling extreme metal trio from Brazil, Krisiun’s savage lyrics, punishing riffs, and unmitigated velocity helped make them one of the more punitive metal ensembles to emerge in the 1990s. Heavily influenced by bands like Slayer, Sodom, and Morbid Angel, the band employ a vicious, straight-ahead death metal style that was crystallized into pure fury on career-making outings like Apocalyptic Revelation (1998), Conquerors of Armageddon (2000), and The Great Execution (2011) that brought many imitators out of the woodwork. 2018’s Scourge of the Enthroned charted in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. Following two long tours and the global pandemic, Krisiun returned in July 2022 with Mortem Solis.

Hailing from Porto Alegre and taking their name from the lunar basin Mare Crisium (“sea of crisis”), the band was founded in 1990 by brothers Alex Camargo (bass, vocals), Moyses Kolesne (guitars), and Max Kolesne (drums) — Camargo uses his mother’s maiden name. A pair of demos (1991’s Evil Age and 1992’s Curse of the Evil One) and a self-released mini-album (1993’s Unmerciful Order) helped the band build a strong local following, resulting in a deal with small Brazilian label Dynamo, which put out the group’s merciless debut long player, Black Force Domain, in 1996. It was picked up for wider distribution by Gun Records, which also issued the group’s acclaimed sophomore effort, 1998’s Apocalyptic Revolution, the latter of which turned heads at major metal player Century Media, who scooped the band up and put out album number three, Conquerors of Armageddon, in early 2000. The label proved to be a loving home for the group, who were now taking their sonic onslaught across the globe, sharing stages with contemporaries like Vader, Belphegor, and Rotting Christ, and releasing a string of workmanlike, but undeniably brutal albums like Ageless Venomous (2001), Works of Carnage (2003), Bloodshed (2004), Assassination (2006), and Southern Storm (2008), the latter of which included a fiery cover of fellow countrymen Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist.” 2011 saw the band issue their eight studio long player, the massively potent Great Execution, which garnered heavy praise from the extreme metal community, as did 2015’s more doom-leaden Forged in Fury. Clocking in at a taut 38 minutes, 2018’s Scourge of the Enthroned marked a return to the Gatling gun riffage and visceral attack of their debut. The album won praise from the metal press internationally, and was their first to chart in Europe.

Following two long tours and the global quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Krisiun finally got the opportunity to record in late 2021. They entered Family Mob Studio in São Paulo, Brazil and produced nine songs themselves. They sent the files off to Mark Lewis in Nashville, Tennessee, who mixed and mastered the set. Titled Mortem Solis, it boasted sleeve art by Marcelo Vasco. The video single “Serpent Messiah” was issued in June, followed by the album release in July. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

New album SARCOMA out now on Nuclear Blast Records

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BURNED IN EFFIGY is a neoclassical melodic death metal band from Chicago, IL.

In January 2022 the band independently released its debut album ‘Rex Mortem’ which was highly acclaimed by leading heavy music media and led to the band sharing the stage with iconic acts such as IMPENDING DOOM and OBSCURA.

Featuring Mark Smedborn on vocals, Mike Hisson and Steve Bacakos on guitar, and founding members Matt Watkins on bass alongside drummer Eddie Dec, the band have taken time in finding its sound and refining its full-length debut.

A must for listeners of acts such as THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and INFERI, with the band’s attention to virtuosity and intensity in equal measure, the effort and accomplishment of the band’s debut led to being talent scouted. In July 2022 BURNED IN EFFIGY signed a worldwide deal with leading New York based heavy music agency EXTREME MANAGEMENT GROUP, joining a roster that featured iconic acts such as SUFFOCATION, CRYPTOPSY, ORIGIN and MISERY INDEX. Hard at work on the bands sophomore album and aiming to take its signature melodic death metal sound across the US, and in time the world, BURNED IN EFFIGY continue to ascend in search of conquest.